“When he called ‘rifle,’ I was like, ‘We’re doing rifle this year? We’re going four wide this year?’ And everybody was real happy,” Brown said, grinning. “At first, I thought he was experimenting, but when we kept doing it in practice, I was like, ‘It’s in the playbook now.’ And in the second half at Missouri, we started calling it a little more, and it started working.”

Then came the pistol formation the following week against Florida Atlantic.

“It was out of nowhere for us,” Brown said. “We were walking through the plays, and Bobo signaled some signal, and I was like, ‘What was that?’ (Bobo said) ‘It’s the pistol.’

“You run an offense based on what you have,” quarterback Aaron Murray said. “And if we have tons of receivers, which we do, you want to spread teams out and be able to use your weapons. And if you don’t have a lot of receivers, you know you’re gonna have to be in the I. I think right now, we have so many options, so much talent, he has the ability to spread things out and try new things. And we’re trying stuff all the time — (Monday) we were trying new things.”

And this?

Even the Georgia defensive players have taken notice of the new offensive chicanery.

“Coach (Todd) Grantham is having to reel us back in because we’re tilting to the side, trying to see what’s happening,” linebacker Christian Robinson said.

Of course, it’s way too early to assert that the page has been turned for good, but I would think even the most rabid anti-Bobo partisan would have to admit the results to date are a cause for optimism. (Along those lines, check out Brian Fremeau’s scoring margin numbers. See a team better than Georgia’s 90.6 on offense? Me neither.)

Granted, a lot of that comes at the hands of Florida and Alabama, but still, if you’re like me and put a lot of weight on the power of trends, that’s not good news for Tennessee’s chances this Saturday.

Asked to discuss the Georgia defense the Vols will face Saturday afternoon between the hedges at Sanford Stadium, junior quarterback Tyler Bray said: “They’re going to bring out a lot of exotic stuff.”

Asked the same general question, junior offensive lineman Ja’Wuan James said: “They don’t do too many exotic things.”

Not exactly on the same page there, eh?

Of course James may be trying to send his quarterback a message to worry about the exotics less and where Jarvis Jones lines up more.

Quote Of The Day

“Give them credit, but I think everybody can see that Georgia’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. I’m very proud of this team and this university, and we’re not going anywhere.’ — Kirby Smart, AJ-C, 1/9/18